


taking care

by dottie_wan_kenobi



Series: practice prompts [15]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fire Lady Katara, Fire Lord Zuko, Healthy Relationships, Married Katara/Zuko (Avatar), POV Zuko (Avatar), background racism, not too bad but still warning for it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23019247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dottie_wan_kenobi/pseuds/dottie_wan_kenobi
Summary: Written for the prompt, "Listening to them while they vent."
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: practice prompts [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1626685
Kudos: 130





	taking care

**Author's Note:**

> So my pal whateverrrrwhatever and I started doing some what we call practice prompts, where we give ourselves about 20 minutes to write a roughly 300-600 word fic based on a prompt. Originally, they were just gonna be posted on Tumblr but I wanted to bring mine over here. This is very lightly beta-read.
> 
> The racism warning is for a Fire Nation woman making non-graphic comments on Katara's upbringing.

Zuko isn’t surprised that Katara seeks him out during his lunch. It’s one of the few times a day he’s left alone by all of the advisers and sages and servants, and she often likes to come and eat with him. It doesn’t happen everyday, but on the ones it does, he finds himself going back to the never-ending drone of meetings feeling a little lighter.

Today, though, she doesn’t have a meal with her when she steps through the doors, saying to the guards, “No one is to disturb us until further notice.”

He hears a quiet murmur of, “Yes, Lady Katara,” before the doors shut tightly behind her.

When she looks up and meets his eyes, he smiles and gestures to the couch where they always sit together. He stands, about to swallow his bite, when Katara stomps over to it, her cheeks a little ruddy and her eyebrows furrowed. Instead of sitting, she paces, making a face he knows very well—intense annoyance.

“Did something happen?” He asks, bringing his plate and setting it down on the side table. For a moment, he debates standing at the end of her path or sitting, but she makes the decision for him, guiding him to sit in one corner. She flops into the other, her feet coming up to rest in his lap. Irritation has her glaring at something over his head.

“I was trying to speak to one of the servants,” she explains lowly. “The sheets needed to be replaced, as you know. And while we were talking, one of the noblewomen came upon us and told me that maybe where I come from, it’s okay to speak to the help, but here, royals are above such things, and that their opinions and comfort are worth nothing. And then she said she’s not surprised I haven’t figured it out, considering how _backwards_ I am.”

Zuko makes an appropriately disgusted noise, hands falling to her ankles and grasping comfortingly. 

“I said that she shouldn’t be speaking to her Fire Lady that way, and you _know_ how much I hate saying that, but seriously! How dare she call me that right to my face, in _my_ palace! And it’s not like I haven’t been living here for six whole spirits-damned years now!”

He doesn’t smile even though he’s tempted—he loves hearing her refer to anything in the Fire Nation as hers—and instead hums encouragingly. His fingers slide under her sandals to rub at the soles of her feet, his efforts paying off when she relaxes a little into the cushions.

“As if it’s wrong to treat people with respect!” She goes on, eyes blazing. “ _Sorry_ that I care about our servants and want to make things a little easier for them if I can. I told her to get lost and apologized to the servant, but I can tell she felt so embarrassed, Zuko, and all because of some stuck up woman who’d never know kindness if it slapped her in the face.”

“You know how they are,” he says. “They’re so privileged, they don’t even realize there’s any other way to act. I’ll have a talk with them again. I won’t have any of them mistreating the servants.”

“I’ll join you. I have some choice words they need to hear.” She sighs, closing her eyes and stretching her toes. Then she glances at his plate, forgotten for the moment. ”Can I have some of that?”

He doesn’t hesitate to hand the plate over.


End file.
